Consequences of a Letter
by Akairo Kessho
Summary: Sarutobi, Jiraiya and Kakashi are left a letter by Minato shortly before he sacrifices himself to reseal the Kyuubi, and as they read it the day after, they begin to realize that Minato had plans that were going to shape the Shinobi Nations


It would be an incredible understatement to say that Kakashi had lived a hard life. Kakashi's father was one of the strongest ninja in the elemental nations as Kakashi began to grow up; The White Fang was a name that was revered all over the continent. That was, until repeated failures caused his father to fall into disgrace in the eyes of the village, slowly driving his father into a deep depression.

A few short weeks before Kakashi's fifth birthday, Sakumo Hatake committed suicide, taking his own life to bring an end to the constant disgrace and depression. But what Sakumo did not seem to consider, was how it would shatter his son's mind. Kakashi became introverted after that, keeping to himself, not making any friends his own age, and always dedicating every amount of time he could into training to become a ninja.

So it was that Kakashi flew through the academy at a young age, highly advanced, lethal, and a soon to be killer. At nine years old, Kakashi killed someone for the first time, something that should never have been allowed to happen, but with the possibility of the Third Great Shinobi War looming on the horizon, all of the children were being trained earlier, faster and better.

Kakashi spent the next three years training under the most powerful man in the village, Minato Namikaze. Kakashi was his personal student, learning all that he could from him, because it was wildly rumored that Minato was a sure candidate for the position of Yondaime Hokage, was the Sandaime got up in age.

It was after those three years, that Minato decided to add two more students to his team, and he picked two fresh genin that were the same age as Kakashi. Hoping that being around kids his own age would breathe some life into the boy that was becoming a stone cold killer, it seemed to work. Kakashi would bicker occasionally with his teammate Obito, an enthusiastic, charismatic Uchiha boy who quickly became Kakashi's best friend. Even the third member, Rin Inuzuka was a positive influence on Kakashi's life, a friend and potential love interest for Kakashi.

Their group however, was shattered during the outbreak of the Third Great Shinobi War, being sent constantly out on missions as they had an S-ranked jounin, a B-ranked chunin, and then two C-ranked chunin, they were constantly on the front of the battle ground, a hard and taxing time for all four of them.

It was early on in the war when Team Minato were tasked with the defense of a bridge that was a key point of passage between Fire Country and Earth Country. What was supposed to be a cushy guard duty turned into a full out battle as a large contingent of Iwa troops attempted to take control of the bridge. With the strength of Minato and Kakashi, they were able to hold off the massively larger force, but it was not without cost.

There was a moment during the battle that Kakashi was forced to make a choice, stop the Iwa nin from planting explosive notes that would neutralize the bridge for good, or he could have stopped Obito from being surrounded by a number of Iwa nin. Remembering his father, who committed suicide from the shame brought on by choosing comrades over the mission, Kakashi made the decision to save the bridge, but in doing so, he left Obito to his death, surrounded and over powered by Iwa nin.

That was the moment in Kakashi's life where everything began to enter a downward spiral. As the mission was finished, and Obito lay dying, Obito told Kakashi that he forgave him, and because Kakashi had had his left eye cut deeply by a kunai, Obito game Kakashi one of his own eyes as a sign of his forgiveness. But for Kakashi, the Sharingan gained from Obito was just a reminder of how he had failed his best friend, and because of that, his best friend had died.

As the turmoil of the war continued to keep Kakashi from confronting and dealing with his guilt and sorrow, he began to become closer and closer to both Minato and Rin. The three of them still continued to go out on missions, none of them able to allow a new member to join their squad, no one could replace the role that Obito had filled one their team, no one could fill that hole that was left in their hearts by his passing.

Several more months passed in the war uneventfully for Kakashi, until his world was taken, shaken and torn asunder once more. Kumo nin took and captured Rin for unknown reasons, and Kakashi went solo to retrieve her before they could take her back to Kumogakure. Kakashi cut off the squad headed back for Kumogakure, and managed to get Rin back from them, and spent the next several hours running at full speed back to the village as he was continually pursued by the Kumo nin, the whole time holding an unconscious Rin in his arms.

Things took a definite turn for the worst when Rin woke up in time to tell Kakashi that the Kumo nin had placed the Hachibi inside of her, and allowing Kakashi to stay just ahead of them so that Kakashi would arrive back to Konoha before the temporary seal holding the Hachibi back broke, where the Hachibi would obviously go on a rampage through the village. That was something that neither of them could allow.

And so Kakashi had to do the only possible course of action that Rin would allow him to take, he killed his own teammate to free the Hachibi from her body before they arrived back in Fire Country, which allowed him to escape as the Kumo nin now had to deal with the Hachibi once again. Kakashi's mind after that incident was drastically shaken, and Kakashi did the only thing he could do to drown his ever growing sorrow, he joined the ANBU, turning his feelings of depression and sorrow into fuel to kill as many Iwa and Kumo nin as he could.

But this only lasted until the war came to an end, and he was no longer able to be sent constantly on mission after mission, and he would now have several days between missions, and the only thing he had to do with that time was reflect on how poor that his life had become, the only good thing left remaining in his life at that point was his sensei Minato, who became the Hokage of Konoha shortly after the war was finally over, Sarutobi being beyond tired from fighting three wars.

But this only served to keep Minato from seeing Kakashi more and more, but for the next several years, things in Kakashi's life stabilized as he developed a kinship, and sort of friendship with his fellow ANBU members. But for years, all Kakashi did was drown his sorrow in missions, alcohol, and more missions, running himself ragged with missions to keep his mind always occupied, it kept the nightmares away.

Things were fine for Kakashi during this time, as well as things possibly could be, and his life was stable again. But even that could not last long for Kakashi, because a few years after the end of the Third Shinobi War, a great disaster befell the village when the Kyuubi was somehow freed from it's cage on October 10th, a night that would forever live in infamy in Konoha.

He would awake the next morning to relive the fact that his sensei, the Hokage, his father figure, the center of his life was dead. His purpose in life was all but gone, and there was nothing left for him to live for. Other than his training as a ninja, he had nothing.

It was then that Kakashi had the idea that maybe he should throw his life back into the ANBU system, it would keep him occupied and keep his mind from lingering on the worst things in his life. That is, until Hiruzen Sarutobi, the reinstated Third Hokage, arrived at his apartment with a letter, addressed to him, Hiruzen and Jiraiya, from Minato.

There were a few facts that Kakashi became privy to from this letter that changed everything. Minato had a son, Naruto Uzumaki, who was born from his wife Kushina, who Kakashi knew nothing about. Kushina had also died during the attack, and knowing that the Kyuubi would otherwise destroy the village, Minato sealed the Kyuubi in his son, Naruto.

There were a few requests that Minato had made, knowing that his death was imminent. They were listed on the sheet of paper as follows:

_To Jiraiya_

_You were like a father to me, Jiraiya-sensei. I will forever thank you for what you taught me, and the lessons you drilled into my head that made me who I was, and the leader that the village needed so badly. It was you who saw the potential I had, and helped me become the leader of the greatest nation in the world. You picked me over you own teammate for the Hokage seat, and while we can look back in Hindsight to know that it was probably for the best, you believed in me enough to choose me._

_To Hiruzen_

_I am sad to say that once again, you will be taking the Hokage robes and putting them on at the start of a new day, not me. As part of my last act as Hokage, I temporarily reinstate you as Hokage. I am thankful to you, for choosing to believe in Jiraiya-sensei's judgment, to name me your successor to the Hokage seat. It was intimidating to me at the time to try and step into the role that you had so amazingly played in Konoha for such a long time, but as you told me frequently, I did a fantastic job myself, for the short time that I have been the Hokage. _

_To Kakashi_

_You are an amazing man Kakashi. You have gone through more than any person could ever be asked of, and with my death, I know that it will be hard for you to continue on. But knowing this, I make a request of you; my final act as Hokage. I name you to be my successor as Hokage. Sarutobi Hiruzen will act as temporary Hokage until it is deemed by him and the council that you are fit to enter the office yourself. _

_I know that you visit Obito's memorial every day; that has to stop. You know over a thousand techniques, yet you have never applied yourself to your training since Obito's passing. I command you to take on a dedicated training schedule for at least the next year, where you spend every moment of your time, 6 days a week, training. You are so close to reaching S-Class level, yet you stop as if something is holding you back. _

_Use your ANBU training, use the training I have given you, and become the shinobi and man that I know you can become. It was my intention, before this whole situation has come to pass, to name you my successor in a few years of more training, and hopefully socializing. You have few friends Kakashi, you will need to change that, and become a positive face for all of Konoha to rally behind. _

Hiruzen had been reading the letter aloud to Kakashi, and the "hidden" Jiraiya who stood in a corner of Kakashi's apartment, while Kakashi and Hiruzen sat in chairs facing each other. Hiruzen looked cautiously at Kakashi, trying to gauge the reaction that Kakashi had gotten from the news. But Kakashi's ANBU training worked well, and all of his emotions remained hidden to Hiruzen, aided by the partial face mask that Kakashi wore.

Looking back down to the letter, Hiruzen continued, _"To the three of you, I leave the responsibility of Naruto, my son. I have many enemies, and as such he should retain the Uzumaki name, as even though it could still attract attention, it is unlikely that any would be even remotely as likely to hurt an Uzumaki, than my son._

_As he is an Uzumaki, the Kyuubi had to be sealed inside of him, as much as it breaks my heart to do so to him. The life of Jinchuriki is solitary and harsh, and I will not have my son grow up in that environment. The Kyuubi being sealed into Naruto, and the fact he is my son, will HAVE to remain a secret, only you three can know. I want Naruto to be raised in a family, yet it would raise too many flags to have either three of you raise Naruto._

_As such, I want Naruto to be raised by his only known relative, Kushina's cousin Eiza Uzumaki. She resides in Mizu no Kuni as far as me or Kushina know, and she is a close friend to Kushina. However, it will difficult to convince her to move to Konoha, due to her involvement in the on-going civil war in the country. _

_This is how I want Kakashi to begin to make a name for himself. I wish for Konoha to make attempts at negotiating a strong alliance with the revolting faction, headed by Mei Terumi. The Yondaime Mizukage has been persecuting anyone with a blood line in Mizu, and a civil war has begun to remove him from power. _

_The war could continue on for years; however I want Kakashi to publically provide aid to the faction, and make a big name for himself as a hero to the people of the Mist, which will win him a lot of support from the civilian council. If he could play it off to Mei Terumi that he convinced Konoha to aid their effort, it could win Kakashi the favor of the future Mizukage, which would aid him largely in gaining support from the shinobi council._

_If played correctly, it will turn Kakashi into a social, and military hero for Konoha, while giving Konoha a strong alliance with Mizugakure, and it will make Kakashi the logical choice for Hiruzen's successor in the eyes of the village. I am putting a lot of faith in you three, because I sacrifice my life today believing that in a few years, Kakashi will continue the work that I cannot complete._

The three men sat in silence as they each thought over what was left in that one letter for them to read, Minato had a tremendous amount of thought put into what he wanted to happen, and he had laid out a path for Kakashi to become the Hokage, the leader of Konoha.

Jiraiya was the first to speak, and no hint of humor of any kind was in his voice as was usual, instead he was incredibly serious, "This is an extremely dangerous plan. I was the one that informed Minato of what was going on in Mizugakure, and for us to get involved there would be EXTREMELY risky, and could possibly bring about another great war. As far as I know, no other major country knows that there is a war going on in Water Country, but if we get involved, the other villages will find out, and we all know that both Kumo and Iwa would gladly jump at the chance to attack another one of the great five shinobi nations while they are weakened."

Hiruzen was quick to argue with him however, "But think about what you just said, the other shinobi nations do not know about the civil war as of yet, and if we can get involved in the right ways, then we can bring an end to the civil war there before Iwa or Kumo get word of what was happening."

Jiraiya shook his head, "There is too much risk in what you are saying though, sensei. We are talking about starting another possible war between all five nations, something that would absolutely decimate us currently after the substantial amount of men and women that died stalling the Kyuubi while Minato prepared to seal it. Besides, this all depends on whether or not Kakashi could even handle that right now, as Minato said, this boy has been through so much for his age."

Kakashi then took his turn to speak, "I believe that we should do it. And I know how we can do it, as well. We can say that refugees from the war arrived in Fire Country and told us about what was happening, then I will go by myself into Water Country to make contact with Mei Terumi and her side, hopefully convince them I came to help, and then come back a while later with aide from Konoha, which I had to spend nearly a week convincing our council that this was the right path to take."

Hiruzen and Jiraiya both stopped to think, and they both came to the same conclusion, 'Maybe Kakashi really does have what it takes to be Hokage.'

Hiruzen again began to speak, adding his input to Kakashi's plan for explaining his interest in Water Country's plight, "We should actually have refugees come here, in case Mei or anyone else in the Hidden Mist asks us who told us about the civil war, and how hard it is for the people. Jiraiya, you should go to Water Country under a guise as a merchant and while there, convince people that are displaced by the current war to take refuge in Fire Country."

As the day continued on, the three of them spent hours preparing and laying out plans that were going to shape the world.

Author's Note

So hello, hopefully someone will read this. This is something that I have been thinking of writing for years, and I am only just now getting around to it. Kakashi was a wreck in canon. Destroyed mentally by the death of everyone he ever let become close to him, Kakashi achieved much less than he could have. With guidance from the last words of his sensei, Kakashi, Hiruzen and Jiraiya are setting a conspiracy in motion to make Kakashi the Godaime Hokage. I believe that if Kakashi had not returned to ANBU after the Kyuubi attack in canon, he could have continued training to become an S rank shinobi. With over a thousand jutsu, a Sharingan and elite level training, Kakashi should have been an S rank shinobi, instead his destroyed mental state drove him back into ANBU, where he could drown all of the pain and suffering in his life under the stress of constant missions. I think that with one simple letter, Kakashi could have become a man of equal battle prowess as Minato, and he would have become instrumental in the shaping of the Shinobi Nations.n outstanding model shinobi. trained old,


End file.
